Career criminal Nikolai Radev gunned down in a Coburg street
VIOLENT career criminal Nikolai Radev had a simple motto for survival -- never leave home without a pistol.
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VIOLENT career criminal Nikolai Radev had a simple motto for survival -- never leave home without a pistol.
But for some reason, ``Nik the Russian'', as he liked to be known in underworld circles, decided not to take a gun with him on what was to be his last outing on Tuesday.
He was gunned down in a Coburg street about 4.30pm.
Radev, 48, embarked on his life of crime after migrating from Bulgaria in 1981.
He was a problem for police and a threat to other criminals because of his brutality and standover tactics.
A police report says this of him: ``He is a dangerous and violent offender well connected within the criminal underworld.
He carries firearms and associates with people who carry and use firearms.
``His conviction history shows a propensity towards violence to extort money. He has been implicated in murder inquiries. He will assault and resist police.''
Radev had a long list of criminal convictions, including theft, burglary and assault, drug trafficking, possessing weapons and armed robbery.
He was also charged with aggravated burglary after he allegedly put a gun in the mouth of a victim's young daughter.
He was acquitted.
Radev was an initial suspect for the 1998 murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior-Constable Rod Miller.
He also allegedly planned to kill an organised crime squad detective -- now retired -- and threatened the officer's parents by walking into their hotel reputedly armed with hand grenades.
Radev was facing a firearms charge and two rape complaints when he died.
``He was predominantly violent. In the latter years he embarrassed the system by making most charges disappear through the intimidation of witnesses,'' the former detective said.
``His favourite method of operation was to stand over people committing fraud and demand money in return for protection.
``The victims couldn't report it because they were active criminals themselves.''
The alleged plot to kill the organised crime squad detective began with Radev's standover tactics.
On May 19, 2000, a man called Sedat Ceylan was sentenced to a year's jail for deception offences.
While inside, he met Radev, who was awaiting trial for the aggravated burglary of which he was later acquitted.
Ceylan was released in Ap ril 2001. In May, Radev and an associate threatened to kill Ceylan's family unless he gave them $120,000.
Police allege Radev later tortured Ceylan for six hours and dangled him from the seventh story of the Stamford Plaza Hotel in the city.
Ceylan put $30,000 into a bank account, before Radev went to visit him at his home where a shootout ensued.
Radev was charged with false imprisonment, intentionally causing injury, blackmail and making threats to kill.
On Sunday June 3, 2001, organised crime squad detectives and the special operations group arrested Radev, who was armed with a loaded Glock pistol, at East Kew.
According to the former organised crime squad detective, Radev attacked him in the St Kilda Rd police complex interview room.
The detective was later told that Radev was trying to buy his home address to have him killed.
All charges against Radev, except a firearms offence, were dropped after Ceylan, the main witness, fled to Turkey. He has not returned.
It is a firearms charge that Radev will never have to face.